Thursday, 20 August 2015

This is a reminder to complete the WCPA Survey of those interested in presenting content at the IUCN World Conservation Congress that will take place in Hawai'i next year with the Forum session consisting of workshops, knowledge cafes, conservation campus training sessions and posters held at the start of the Congress from 2-5 September. The survey can be found at the following link: www.surveymonkey.com/s/GPAP

Completing the survey will help WCPA and GPAP leadership to identify synergies that will result in the submission of the strongest proposals. It will not replace the need to submit full proposals into the Congress Website by 15 October. If we coordinate our efforts and prioritise applications, we stand a better chance of their selection.

You can see full details of the call for proposals and the criteria that will be used to select successful submissions at :

We won’t repeat the criteria here but it is critical that people developing a proposal follow these carefully. A number are worth emphasising here. Proposals (especially for workshops and conservation campus sessions) need to represent apartnership approach (ideally involving multiple partners from the IUCN family of members (government and non-government, Commissions, Secretariat and other groups. Secondly the proposals should be relevant to the Congress theme (Planet at the crossroads) and the draft IUCN program 2017-2020. Thirdly, there is a strong desire to move away from “death by powerpoint” and the detailed description of how you plan to engage the audience during your session will have a heavy weight in the selection process at the end of October.

The Commission and Global Protected Areas Programme are keen to coordinate a strategic approach to ensure that there are clear proposals involving the WCPA and partners to highlight, amongst other things, the main priorities coming out of the WPC, the WCPA Steering Committee meeting and regional WCPA meetings. If we can ensure that proposals are built around strong partnerships and innovative designs for presentation, we can maximise the reach of protected area issues into the Congress.

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